A Personal View Of War Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCDEE FBFBGHGHEE BBBBIJIJBB KBKBALALBBI NEVER pondered much on war | A |
Except to think it was inspiring | B |
To have a cause to battle for | A |
To hear the guns and cannons firing | B |
To see brave men rush up to death | C |
Without a sign or trace of terror | D |
To give their country blood and breath | C |
But now I know it's all an error | D |
War is a frightful thing I know | E |
What if my boy should have to go | E |
- | |
Last night I leaned above his crib | F |
And spent a little while in playing | B |
tickled him beneath his bib | F |
And watched his little body swaying | B |
With innocent delight and then | G |
It seemed I heard the noise of battle | H |
The wails and shrieks of dying men | G |
The cannons' boom the muskets' rattle | H |
And shuddered as I stooped down low | E |
What if my babe some day must go | E |
- | |
War did not seem a splendid thing | B |
There was no glory in the fighting | B |
No thrill in hearing bullets sing | B |
No joy in men each other smiting | B |
I saw but heartache and the grave | I |
And misery and desolation | J |
As splendid fellows bold and brave | I |
Were sacrificed unto the nation | J |
I wept with men of long ago | B |
Whose boys marched out to face the foe | B |
- | |
I used to think that war was grand | K |
That bugle calls were splendid thrilling | B |
But now I know and understand | K |
They sound the message to start killing | B |
And when I ponder now on war | A |
'Tis but to see the terror of it | L |
The glory that I saw before | A |
Has vanished in the error of it | L |
War may have seemed a brilliant show | B |
It's different when your own may go | B |
Edgar Albert Guest
(1)
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